Alex Peterson, a leader in the Boston area's Bitcoin community, announced Monday that his company is looking to become a fully licensed money transmitter, which will allow it to install and operate a Robocoin Bitcoin ATM in Boston by the beginning of 2014. The ATM will allow Bitcoin users to deposit money to their online Bitcoin wallet or to withdraw money from their Bitcoin accounts.

Bitcoin, a digital currency used to make purchases both on the Internet and in traditional brick and mortar stores, is known as "crypto-currency." Cyrpto-currency is "a new form of money that uses cryptography to control its creation and transactions, rather than a central authority," Forbes described. Bitcoin can also be bought or sold for traditional currency.

The system has no central overseer or agency that distributes funds. Money is instead transferred directly from person to person online, avoiding fees. Bitcoins can be used in every country, users' accounts cannot be frozen and there are no prerequisites or arbitrary limits. Proponents of Bitcoin often laud it as true free market capitalism, citing the lack of interference from the federal government or a central authority.

Peterson is asking for suggestions for ATM locations in the Cambridge and Harvard Square area via Reddit. He lists several reasons business owners should want to host the digital currency ATM: the Bitcoin community is "strong, self-reinforcing, evangelizing and ever-growing," Bitcoin is popular enough to make a splash and its technology is "cutting edge" and "trendy."

Pearson has been selling Bitcoins in the Boston community and decided to push for an ATM after a Vancouver coffee shop installed the world's first Bitcoin ATM in October.

"I had a lot of customers from all over different neighborhoods in Boston, and I really wanted to try to bring an ATM here to bring it all into one location instead of the fragmented doing deals in coffee shops and being nervous about bringing cash to someone you met on the Internet," Peterson explained.

The world's first Bitcoin ATM opened in a Vancouver coffee shop in late October. "We've had lineups all day every day," Bitcoiniacs co-founder Mitchell Demeter told the Vancouver Sun.

However, security officials have expressed concern over the anonymous nature of the system. Bitcoins use coded online or mobile wallets and do not use actual names. Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman told CNN Money this process presents a challenge as traditional financial crime is easier to fight with "appropriate anti-money laundering and know-your-customer controls."

Peterson acknowledges that Bitcoin is a "risky alternative investment" due to the volatility of the value. Today, a single Bitcoin is worth $801 US dollars, up from approximately $200 just a few weeks ago.

The changes in value have been constant throughout the year. In 2013, "the value of a Bitcoin soared more than 10-fold in a two-month period, from $22 in February to a record $266 in April. At its peak, based on more than 10 million bitcoins issued, the crypto currency boasted a market value of over $2 million," reported Forbes.